Primer: Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor and the Suspension of Reality

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company,
Evolve Media.

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It’s almost time. Conor
McGregor will take on Floyd
Mayweather in a 12-round boxing match this Saturday at T-Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas. It still feels weird to say it, and it should
because this is a really odd fight.

On one hand, it pairs two of the most entertaining talkers in
professional sports. It’s a fight between two world champions and a
fight that will make both men so much money that they’ll have the
means to build ivory mansions and live there without moving another
limb for the rest of their days. On the other hand, we have two men
from different sports trying to convince us that a complete
mismatch is something we need. It’s a Ponzi scheme masked as a
sporting event, as the protagonists line their pockets and the
significantly less well-off pay-per-view customers toil with
buyer’s remorse in the aftermath.

There seems to be a divide between people on the subject. One side
chooses to label it an abomination, while the other goes head-first
into the build-up, entertainment and fight itself. Whenever you
pick sides, it’s usually not a good thing. In this case, neither
side is right or wrong. Yes, this fight pits a 0-0 boxer against
the greatest boxer of his generation, but that 0-0 boxer holds the
distinction of being the only competitor in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history to possess UFC titles in
two weight classes simultaneously. Yes, they are charging
ridiculous PPV fees for what amounts to a foregone conclusion, but
it has provided months of entertainment -- if that’s your thing.
One side will love it; the other will be infuriated by it.

It has been particularly difficult to separate the weeds from the
flowers here. Fans, pundits and even the fighters themselves have
spewed a whole load of nonsense on the subject. Seeing as though
Sherdog.com is an MMA-centered website, let me concentrate on what
has been said about McGregor; and the first person to talk nonsense
about the reigning UFC lightweight champion was McGregor himself.
During this training camp, he has pushed the narrative that
everyone doubted him throughout his career. While McGregor has his
detractors, that isn’t necessarily true.

Looking back at his fight with Jose Aldo at
UFC 194, many pundits picked McGregor to win, and it wasn’t just
favoring one man to beat another. It was taking someone to beat the
greatest featherweight of all-time, a man who hadn’t lost in nine
years. That doesn’t sound like doubt. Of course, observers had
questions along the way. Could he wrestle? Could he step up in
competition? Could he win fights on short notice? Could he rebound
from a loss? Those questions have been answered. We know he can
beat wrestlers. We know he’s a championship-caliber performer. We
know he’s a fantastic mixed martial artist. Those who deny those
truths do so at the risk of being ignored.

What has changed now is that people are actually doubting him, and
with good reason. While we know he’s brilliant inside the Octagon,
we don’t know anything about him as a boxer. Logically, nobody
should think he can beat Mayweather -- it’s 49-0 vs. 0-0 -- but
many still do. That’s where more nonsense comes into play. The
karate stance can be awkward; McGregor will throw shots from
different angles; Mayweather is old and out of shape. Everyone has
a miracle scenario in which McGregor knocks out a man that can’t be
hit. Everyone wants to be able to say, “I told you so.” They don’t
care about reality.

If only fans were crossing these lines, it would be OK, but the
fact that others are giving McGregor anything more than the
slightest of puncher’s chances is pretty ludicrous. In reality,
“Mystic Mac” should be a 100-to-1 underdog with the bookmakers, not
3-to-1. People need to come to terms with the fact that it’s going
to be almost impossible to hit Mayweather, no matter what happens;
and even if McGregor does find early success, Mayweather has proven
himself to be one of the best boxers of all-time at making
mid-fight adjustments. To look at this fight honestly is to look at
it as David vs. Goliath, not champion vs. champion. This is fight
between a man who has beaten multiple world champions against a man
lacing up the gloves for the first time. This is no pick ’em fight;
this is the potential plot for the greatest upset in combat sports
history.

No matter the outcome, this will likely go down as one of the most
financially successful bouts on record. Despite reports of lukewarm
initial ticket sales, the gate will be massive; the pay-per-view
buys will be astronomical; and all other meaningful revenue streams
associated with it will be off the charts. That has also become a
divisive subject in an odd way. There’s a feeling that fans are
being robbed in broad daylight because this simply isn’t a
worthwhile sporting contest. That argument can be made, but it’s
flawed. At the end of the day, combat sports are not like other
sports. For Neymar to get his money from Paris St-Germain, all he
had to do was train, work and play in games. Combat sports are not
the same. They are about the prize in prizefighting. If this was
just about the fight itself, then Demetrious
Johnson or Vasyl Lomachenko might be the subject of this piece.
Yes, it has always been about the prize. Fighters don’t merely have
to work for their dinner; they have to sing for their supper,
too.

To achieve superstardom like Mayweather and McGregor, you have to
fight well, speak well, stay interesting and relevant, force people
to care about you and possess an “it” factor that leads the public
to buy into what you’re selling. This fight has highlighted those
realities more than any other. Both Mayweather and McGregor have
that figured out. Even so, the juxtaposition between sports and
entertainment still makes their matchup weird.

Fighting isn’t as simple as likes and dislikes. It’s more
complicated, like mathematics. If you can’t differentiate between
boxing and MMA, Mayweather-McGregor is a match made in heaven. They
figured out the same equation while working with different
variables: Mayweather plus McGregor equals money.